Address Detective: Bitcoin address quiz
Spot the address type — and the fakes — against the clock.
How to play
- You get 12 addresses and 60 seconds in total. The clock starts when you press Start and runs on the server.
- Classify each one: Legacy (P2PKH), P2SH, Native SegWit, Taproot or Invalid. After each answer you see why.
- Fakes look almost right: a forbidden character (Base58 has no 0, O, I or l; bech32 has no 1, b, i or o after “bc1”), a wrong length, or a broken checksum.
- Score = correct answers out of 12. Ties go to whoever finished faster.
- Season points: 11–12 = 3, 8–10 = 2, 5–7 = 1. A perfect 12 earns the perfect badge.
- Same 12 addresses for everyone each day.
About this game
Every Bitcoin address tells you what it is before you read a single byte: 1… is Legacy, 3… is a script hash, bc1q… is Native SegWit and bc1p… is Taproot. Address Detective gives you 12 mainnet addresses and one minute to sort them out — including the fakes.
All addresses are built with the real encoders (Base58Check, bech32 and bech32m) from random bytes, so nobody owns them. The fakes are real mistakes: a character no alphabet allows, an impossible length, or a checksum that does not add up.
Is it free?
Yes. Like every FreeBTC game it costs nothing to play, and good results add season points.
Can I send bitcoin to these addresses?
Please don’t. They are built from random bytes, so nobody has the keys: anything sent to a valid one would be lost forever.
How can a fake have no visible mistake?
Sometimes a single changed character still uses allowed letters. Only the checksum catches it, which is exactly why wallets verify it, and why you should always copy-paste addresses and double-check them.
Which address type should I use?
Modern wallets default to Native SegWit (bc1q) or Taproot (bc1p): they are cheaper to spend from than Legacy and P2SH. Any up-to-date wallet can pay all four types.